Lawyers representing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Elon Musk’s agency tasked with cutting federal budgets hope to reinstate deep cuts to an Idaho fair housing rights nonprofit and three similar groups nationwide.
Last month, Intermountain Fair Housing Council joined a class action lawsuit against HUD and Musk’s agency US Digital DOGE Service. IFHC joined the suit alongside similar nonprofits that complete Fair Housing Act investigations and represent low-income tenants experiencing housing discrimination or other misconduct by their landlords, and eviction. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts on behalf of 66 fair housing organizations after the federal government terminated “without notice, reason, or sensible explanation” 78 Fair Housing Initiative Program grants on February 27.Payette employees could be re-instated after court ruling
These grants, valued at more than $30 million, are the primary funding source for fair housing organizations in 33 states, including the Intermountain Fair Housing Council, which serves all of Idaho. The nonprofit’s most recently available tax paperwork from 2023 shows that $1.2 million of its revenue comes from grants, with nearly $1 million of these costs covering employee salaries and benefits. These cuts also impacted a grant to Idaho Legal Aid Services for fair housing issues, funding their work through early summer, according to channel 7.
The lawsuit said IFHC could close entirely in the next three to four months if the funding isn’t reinstated.
“The advocacy, enforcement, education and outreach, counseling, and training that has
been a bulwark against housing discrimination and segregation for decades was immediately and
suddenly compromised,” the complaint said.
Judge Richard G. Stearns in Massachusetts granted a temporary restraining order blocking cuts and ordering the funding reinstated while the lawsuit continues, as requested by the nonprofits, on March 26. On Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Julian Canzonari filed a brief asking Stears to lift the restraining order blocking the cuts in the wake of a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court last week on a similar lawsuit over DOGE cuts to federal grants to recruit and train teachers nationwide. In this case, SCOTUS sided with the federal government in a 5-4 decision that the cuts could move forward for now while the lawsuit is ongoing.
These cuts to Intermountain Fair Housing Council and other similar organizations are part of sweeping reductions to the federal government workforce and programs after President Donald Trump was sworn into office for his second term earlier this year. Grants, employees and programs across the government in the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Weather Service and other agencies have been impacted by cuts by DOGE and other Trump initiatives.
Lawsuit: Cuts caused ‘immediate and devastating impact’
The complaint filed by IFHC and the other groups say these cuts will hurt Americans who rely on their services to uphold the Fair Housing Act.
The Fair Housing Act, which was passed by Congress in 1968 as part of the response to the Civil Rights movement, bans discrimination for housing on the basis of race, sexual orientation, gender, disability, if because someone has children, source of income, or other factors. The grant program DOGE moved to cut was put in place to create a network of nonprofits supporting people nationwide who believe they were discriminated against with legal assistance, education about their rights and the ability for investigations into landlords they believe are violating the law.
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“The (nonprofits) and the class of organizations they represent have all used FHIP grants to ensure that individuals and families in the communities they serve can find and maintain safe, affordable, and accessible housing free from discrimination,” the complaint said. “The summary cancellation of their FHIP grants has caused an immediate and devasting impact. They have had to shutter programs, terminate services, lay off staff members, and shrink their core activities. Some face the likelihood of near-term closure.”
The complaint said the letter from DOGE announcing the cuts gave the reasoning for the cuts because the grants “no longer effectuate the program goals or agency priorities.” The nonprofits in their lawsuit argue this reasoning doesn’t pass muster because the grants were specifically created by Congress in the late 1980s to support the enforcement of Fair Housing Act and serve rural communities without similar legal aid services.
“Moreover, DOGE has no authority to direct HUD to cancel grants, nor does HUD have any authority for accepting DOGE’s grant-related directives,” the complaint said.
How will IFHC be impacted?
The majority of IFHC’s grants from the FHIP program were terminated.
The complaint said three of IFHC’s grants through the program were canceled, amounting to a little more than half a million. The organization was scheduled to land another $120,000 grant before the cancellation. IFHC’s Executive Director Zoe Ann Olson told KTVB the organization was left with one remaining HUD grant and that the four federal grants make up 90% of the organization’s budget.
IFHC is based in Boise, but serves residents in all 44 Idaho counties with a staff of nine full-time employees who conduct fair housing violation investigations, support tenants facing eviction and file legal complaints against landlords in violation of the law. The complaint said the nonprofit is often the only fair housing resource available to residents in Idaho and has conducted more than 50,000 intakes for assistance since its inception. For example, the organization represented tenants with a Section 8 housing voucher who were overcharged thousands of dollars in rent by property manager Property People last year.
The grants terminated by DOGE were focused on several initiatives. One grant worth $259,000 funded staff for a fair housing enforcement program to address environmental discrimination and bias in the rental application or home loan process due to the use of artificial intelligence, the complaint said. Another two grants totaled $250,000, which funded four of IFHC employees’ salaries. This grant was used to educate residents on fair housing rules and create resource guides for Idahoans, including disaster planning guides for residents with disabilities in case of wildfire.
Staff funded by this grant also provided fair housing training in Spanish and American Sign Language, according to the complaint. The grant was also being used to fund staff to complete testing of housing complexes alleged to have high levels of lead and other heavy metals, poisoning residents. The complaint said more than 15 test sites have already been visited as part of the investigation process and the work will now not be completed due to the cuts.
IFHC immediately laid off one staff member who did intake of clients, performed investigations, did education and outreach, and was the only Swahili speaker on staff. Another four full-time staff members will also be laid off if the grants are not reinstated by mid-April. The suit also said IFHC will cut its service area by a quarter, leaving the “most remote, poor and vulnerable counties” without services. The complaint did not specify exactly which area of the state would be slated for service cuts.
“Just six months ago, HUD’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary specifically recognized the IFHC’s work on environmental justice and awarded the organization special funding in recognition of this work, along with one of the grants at issue here,” the complaint said. “The IFHC has never received any communication from HUD that its performance or compliance with the terms and conditions of the grant was anything less than satisfactory.”
